Marketing: Better Marketing Through Modern Mind-Control

Better Marketing Through Modern Mind-Control

Written by Linda Cox

There are two kinds of marketing: Direct Marketing and Brand Marketing. Direct marketing targets wallets. Branding is about hearts and minds.

DIFFERENT BY DESIGN

Ads designed for branding are cool. They don't plead and beg and cajole, they just sit there. They may be loud, but in a very smug way because they already got what they want. They may tell you where to click or who to call, but they don't really care if you do. You saw them... that's enough. An impression was made.

Think Absolut Vodka.

Direct sale ads have a real do-or-die attitude that can make them a bit annoying and undignified, especially amid their mellower counterparts. By their directives shall ye know them: Call Now! Order Now! Click Now!

Think infomercials.

You can't track repparttar results of a branding campaign like you can a direct sales campaign, but you don't have to. You don't need to prove that an ad performed its function when its function was to just sit there and look cool.

But where does that leave repparttar 121746 accountants who need those stats to further trim repparttar 121747 marketing budget?

Who cares?

THE NEW CUSTOMER

Say it's your friend's birthday and you buy her a t-shirt with repparttar 121748 logo of repparttar 121749 Mikey Running Shoe Company emblazoned across repparttar 121750 front. Does that make you a Mikey person?

No. You're just some putz who bought something. As far as repparttar 121751 Mikey Running Shoe Company is concerned, you're irrelevant... a statistical aberration.

Frankly, Mikey would rather have their shirt back.

But say you buy ALL your friends gifts with repparttar 121752 Mikey logo - plus most of your own wardrobe. You don't even have to think about it, you just do it. Now you're not an aberration, you're a customer, and that's a whole different level of commitment.

Marketing Maxims for Today's Challenging Times

Written by Lee Traupel

These are turbulent times for all businesses - necessitating streamlined marketing processes that are finely honed to mesh with today's sputtering global economy.

1) Don't stop advertising because repparttar economy is sluggish - increase it, as many of your competitors are foolishly slowing down and you can grab market share! Look at what Dell has done to Gateway in repparttar 121745 last eighteen months – Gateway has lost 10-20% of their market share and are pulling in their horns, while Dell's slice of repparttar 121746 pie has grown bigger.

2) Negotiate aggressively with media sources – its tough right now for online and offline publishers to generate advertising revenue and they are being forced to consider any and all deals. Note repparttar 121747 number of "house ads" being run by major portals like Yahoo and Internet.com, 20-30% of their banner ads or sponsorship buttons are promoting their own businesses.

3) It's no secret that many ecommerce sites look like Amazon.com – it pays to mirror existing market leaders' web site design. People always resist change and familiarity is one of key reasons why they shop on and offline in repparttar 121748 same stores.

4) Niche marketing has almost become a homily – but it enables your company to leverage your marketing expenditures and R&D costs by concentrating on a narrow market segment. ToolLogic, Inc. (www.toollogic.com) is a wonderful example of a company that created/found a niche and then dominated it.

5) What's unique about your company, services and/or products? When you understand this you've just created "brand uniqueness" – make sure you integrate these themes with all of your marketing; customers need to know what's different about your company versus your competitors. Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream (www.benandjerrys.com) did a wonderful job of developing brand uniqueness in a commodity market (ice cream) that enabled them to build a great company.

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